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Long-Distance Movement of Goods in the Mesoamerican Formative and Classic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert D. Drennan
Robert D. Drennan*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
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Abstract

Many models for the development of complex societies in Mesoamerica have assigned a major role to the economic importance of long-distance trade or exchange. Consideration of the distances between major centers of the Formative and Classic indicates that basic foodstuffs could not have been profitably moved between them. The evidence for the Early and Middle Formative indicates that long-distance movement of any material of which we have evidence could not have had much economic importance. By Early Classic times higher population levels make it possible to speak of long-distance movement of goods other than food staples on a scale that could have had a significant impact on a complex society.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , January 1984 , pp. 27 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1984

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References

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